07/30/2008

Cal/OSHA recently issued citations to a farm labor contractor following an investigation of the death of a 17-year-old farm worker from heat stroke. The proposed fines, which included three serious and willful citations, two serious citations, one regulatory citation, and one general citation, totaled $262,700, the largest fine assessed against an agricultural firm since the permanent heat illness prevention regulations were implemented in 2006. The serious and willful citations included fines of $70,000 each, while the serious citations garnered $22,500 fines.

What It All Means

When Cal/OSHA hits an employer with citations and fines, they are based on the regulations found in Chapter 3.2, Subchapter 1, Article 4 of the California Occupational Safety and Health Regulations. These regulations spell out the classification of violations and the assessment of civil penalties (fines) for those violations, including factors Cal/OSHA should consider when assessing penalties.

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The penalties assessed against the farm labor contractor show that Cal/OSHA is very serious about heat illness prevention programs. Our 90-min audio conference "Heat Stress at Work: How to Keep Your Employees Safe, Healthy, and Productive" will help you prevent heat-related illness and injury in your workplace—and avoid citations and fines.

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Classification of Violations

The classifications for Cal/OSHA violations are as follows:

• Regulatory: A regulatory violation pertains to permit, posting, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements mandated by regulation or statute. Failing to post required posters, not reporting a serious injury or death in a timely fashion, or failing to obtain a permit to operate a pressure tank are all examples of a regulatory violation.


• General: A general violation is one that is specifically determined not to be of a serious nature yet still has a relationship to the safety and health of employees. In the example of the farm labor contractor, a general citation was issued for failing to train new employees about the requirements of its injury and illness prevention program.


• Serious: A serious violation is one where there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from the violation. "Substantial probability" refers to the probability of death or serious harm assuming an incident occurs because of the violation—not the probability that the incident itself will occur. Serious violations include serious exposure to a chemical exceeding an established permissible exposure limit or violation of any standard regarding the use of a carcinogen. Serious violations generally result in higher penalty assessments.


• Repeat: A repeat violation occurs when an employer corrects an earlier violation (or says it corrected an earlier violation) and, upon later inspection, it is found within a period of three years immediately following the initial violation (or five years for field sanitation violations) that the employer has committed the same violation again. Because repeat violations indicate that an employer is not attending to unsafe or unhealthy conditions already identified in the workplace, repeat violations generally result in increased penalty assessments.


• Willful: A willful violation is a violation where evidence indicates that the employer committed an intentional and knowing violation—the employer was conscious of the fact that what it was doing was a safety law violation or, even if the employer was not consciously violating a safety law, it was aware that an unsafe or hazardous condition existed and made no reasonable effort to eliminate the condition. Because willful violations suggest that an employer is disregarding its responsibility to protect its employees, willful violations usually add to the penalties assessed.

The repeat and willful violation classifications are used in combination with the other three classifications (for example, serious and willful).

When a Cal/OSHA inspector performs an inspection, he or she follows a process for determining a violation's classification. If an employer is subject to an inspection resulting in citations, it is important to understand how the inspector arrived at his or her decisions regarding the type of violation cited.

Don't Let Your Workplace Become a Cal/OSHA Headline

Get your CD recording of "Heat Stress at Work: How to Keep Your Employees Safe, Healthy, and Productive," a 90-minute audio conference originally presented in June 2008. Featuring John Howard, M.D., Esq., national director of the Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), this conference will provide you with important information on preventing heat illness and injury at your workplace, including:

• What California's heat illness prevention standard requires of you


• How heat-related illnesses occur, and the symptoms to watch out for


• What can happen to the body in high-heat conditions


• Why your workers need to be trained to monitor each other for heat illness symptoms, as well as what actions they should take if symptoms appear


• How employees suffering from heat illness can pose dangers to themselves and co-workers


• Prevention tips to reduce the risk of heat-related illnesses

It's not too late—order your copy of the CD recording of the conference today.